The Background to Evolution of Window Managers

Even though, I would address evolution of Window Managers in general, my main deviation in this piece is how Linux contributed to the rapid progress in Software Development.

Resource Management

In the early days we had big mainframe computers and limited memory to share.

There was no graphic component but blank and black terminals connected to the mainframe which had to be switched on and off through telephone lines.

The vision of those days was for the knowledge in text form to be shared locally within a campus and globally over many universities.

To help this process www was created.

Early days connection was made through Lynx, a keyboard dependent Web Browser.

Apart from the hardware, Internet and Web Browser, both dependent on Software contributed immensely to our technological leap.

 

Fast forward, Google which has only minimal of Linux code and simple graphic 

front end and a powerful search engine with its browser dominates the world, now outside of those universities and rapidly expanding with a minimal of core working force, rightly or wrongly aided by significant AI component minimizing the need for a big human workforce and guys and girls losing their jobs.

The 3 components of Google are

1. Kernel borrowed from Linux.

2. Graphical front end.

3. Browser based powerful search engine.

 

Unlike Firefox, it does not have to waste time in development of the browser but only on the advertisement component tagged by the Java components.

 

Winners with minimal contribution at large.

The core team of Google saw the potential and I do not envy them.

Of course Goggle has jumped into hardware in the name of Android and it's variety of cellphones.

Now take Apple in general.

It has Unix 

It has hardware.

It has Safari browser.

It has applications bound to it's operating  system.

All are closed source and one has to pay a fortune to acquire all of them.

User becomes a prisoner even though, he  or she pays a fortune to become a prisoner.

Any attempt to change the Code of Apple is considered to be jail breaking.

 

Microsoft Windows come to capitalize on this framework and I would come to that later.

If not for Linux mankind would have only two operating system both closed.

Then comes the visionary figure but I call him a philosopher for good reason.

He would be long remembered but the other guy who was known to have associated with Epstein would be remembered with pain and disgust.

Richard Stallman saw what was coming and decided to put breaks in the name of Free Software in 1980s.

But he did not have a kernel to port it.

In comes Linus Torvalds with a microcode but open source in 1992. 

 

Put them together a new Open World of Software was born.

Let me go back to mainframe.

It was client server architecture.

Server has all the resources and the operating system.

Black Terminal was the link to the system.

Programs were basic Vim and Emac.

But good in old days memory had to be shared.

 

This is my entry point to X-Windows and it remains at X11, as a industry standard but it has the software language of its own but No Windows to play with.

Windows had to be built on top of this Industry Standard Tools.

So extensions had to be added on top of the standard base.

It did not have graphics to begin with only texts, so graphic extensions were added on top.

With these two extensions it became a workhorse in early days with only a keyboard for inputs and monitor for outputs.

 

Mouse was not in existence.

 

Monitor with so many pixels had a grand potential and this is where Window Managers started coming one after the other.

Black box became Fluxbox.

Later;

Window Manager

Awesome.

dwm

fdwm

herds

xmonad basically a tiling manager.

i3

iceWarm

Spectrum 

Enlightenment

Moksha

Gnome

KDE

xFce

CDE 

 

Common Desktop Environment was proprietary and the above Window Managers came into existence to counter the proprietary trend.

Gnome is the base, it actually does not have a typical window but a standard desktop.

Cinnamon, Mint, Mate and Budgie were built on top of Gnome were the major stake holders with considerable Memory capacity to hoist them.

Whereas, the early light weight Window Managers went into hibernation and    I was not at all interested in them even with a terminal emulator.

But I really had a liking for Enlightenment but not Moksha

Over time these little and light weight Window Managers integrated with terminals as terminal emulators.

Terminal guys started using lot of tiling components and these tiling abilities were enhanced by variety of Window Makers.

That is where we stand today.

If I did not plan writing a book on Linux, I would have never entered into those domains.

Simple reason is, I am only interested in Linux Output and not how the Windows appear on the desktop.

In search of correct not faked information, I am only interested in a page or pages of content and not the frame these information is incarcerated.

This is what I tell the guys who are arguing for Wayland instead of a simple X11 standard.

What matters is the Work Output not the Window Dressing.

My standard is Gnome and I am happy with it and I do not want Mint or Cinnamon.

 

That's it.

Now let me come to Windows briefly.

The top guy of Windows Network builder was working for X11.

He was a bright guy.

He was getting fed up with the standards and he voiced his concerns and he was fired.

Once fired he did not have any industry obligation, he got the bright idea to integrate Memory and Graphic Output, in One Box instead of client + server architecture.

Window boxes were born and there was no turning back.

Mainframes were relegated to server domain and a few server administrators to manage the big frame.

A dead end but the are still hosting large amount of Corporate Data.

Whereas, with the ongoing development of graphic environment which was only raster or two dimensional windows more and more features including colour shades came into existence.

There are million colour shades a computer can generate but we humans can see only about 256 colours.

Still the dynamic rendering or 3D output were not a available for ordinary PCs.

Without a good graphic card PC is nothing but a RAM architecture.

Kernel

RAM

Video out puts are the basics.

 

Since,early days RAM was the limiting factor. 

Videos or Graphic had to be managed separately and shared with the basic RAM.

 

With the gaming platform coming to forefront the development of graphic cards with the sole aim of profit making, this industry with rich venture capitalists (including Valve and Steam Deck) had a healthy boom and became the driving force of the industry.

 

There is nothing called Free Software in Graphic Card industry.

 

Linux guys had to break the code one by one  and it seems Nvidea GeForce (530 dollars) and AMD Radeon (800 dollars) are ruling the gaming world.

 

One can make a Server Farm with 800 dollars with 8 NUC basic hardware.

 

FreeNAS is an example.

 

I am happy with my NUC where CPU and Graphic are integrated and it is only 100 dollars. It is becoming apparent that in the near future we would be able to buy a NUC or Mini PC for less than 300 dollars which are more versatile but under the price hood of Steam and Deck.

 

I may or may not buy one depending on its power consumption and cooling capability with a simple fan. 

I do not want a  computer that catch fire while playing a simple game.

Problem with powerful graphic card is that it consumes lot of energy, it gets heated up when the frame rate pet second goes up (fps for short). 

 

A graphic intensive games would consume 3 times the minimal fps our brain can handle and make us believe or go into the delusional state of a fast playing video game.

That is the bottom line and the summary of my entry to Window Managers.

It is all cosmetic and appearances are always deceptive.

Vinux

Vinux was one of the most beautiful Ubuntu based distribution I have used in the past. 

There were many more.

Two reasons for their demise.

1. First is the changing over to 64 bit.

2. Other reason is Corona Virus blog down. 

However, some distributions were active during the pandemic.

For my luck it was the off year for Debian.

I was down with the Effects of  the Vaccine with Myocardits and all my skeletal muscles were affected, thankfully I did not kick the bucket.

gnuArtist-lite

GnuArtist-lite  is a very good old i386 distributions but gone dormant.

I hope it is revived sooner than late.

Top 50 Linux Commands You Must Know as a Regular User

Top 50 Linux Commands You Must Know as a Regular User

   ls - The most frequently used command in Linux to list directories

   pwd - Print working directory command in Linux

   cd - Linux command to navigate through directories

   mkdir - Command used to create directories in Linux

   mv - Move or rename files in Linux

   cp - Similar usage as mv but for copying files in Linux

   rm - Delete files or directories

   touch - Create blank/empty files

   ln - Create symbolic links (shortcuts) to other files

   clear - Clear the terminal display

   cat - Display file contents on the terminal

   echo - Print any text that follows the command

   less - Linux command to display paged outputs in the terminal

   man - Access manual pages for all Linux commands

   uname - Linux command to get basic information about the OS

   whoami - Get the active username

   tar - Command to extract and compress files in linux

   grep - Search for a string within an output

   head - Return the specified number of lines from the top

   tail - Return the specified number of lines from the bottom

   diff - Find the difference between two files

   cmp - Allows you to check if two files are identical

   comm - Combines the functionality of diff and cmp

   sort - Linux command to sort the content of a file while outputting

   export - Export environment variables in Linux

   zip - Zip files in Linux

   unzip - Unzip files in Linux

   ssh - Secure Shell command in Linux

   service - Linux command to start and stop services

   ps - Display active processes

   kill and killall - Kill active processes by process ID or name

   df - Display disk filesystem information

   mount - Mount file systems in Linux

   chmod - Command to change file permissions

   chown - Command for granting ownership of files or folders

   ifconfig - Display network interfaces and IP addresses

   traceroute - Trace all the network hops to reach the destination

   wget - Direct download files from the internet

   ufw - Firewall command

   iptables - Base firewall for all other firewall utilities to interface with

   apt, pacman, yum, rpm - Package managers depending on the distribution

   sudo - Command to escalate privileges in Linux

   cal - View a command-line calendar

   alias - Create custom shortcuts for your regularly used commands

   dd - Majorly used for creating bootable USB sticks

   whereis - Locate the binary, source, and manual pages for a command

   whatis - Find what a command is used for

   top - View active processes live with their system usage

   useradd and usermod - Add a new user or change existing user data

   passwd - Create or update passwords for existing users

 

Coming back to commands

 

Coming back to commands

cd

pwd

ps

ls

cat,

date,

who

grep

awk

sort

wc

echo

more

less were the ones that followed ping.

There are thousands of commands now one needs to know only a few in working life.

Linux Distribution Passwords

I think it is absurd to ask for a password for a Live Linux session but some distributions do ask for a password for root and user.

1. For Tiny Linux

root and root

guest and guest

2. Debian 

No user or password on a Live session but one has to do that during installation.

Both root and user passwords are necessary.

 3. Netrunner Linux

live and live and no capital letters

 4. Arch Linux

I do not know

May be root and no password  and you may be required to create a user and a password.

Pearl Linux

User custom and password blank

It has changed to live and no password

5. wattOS

User is Guest password is blank

6. Peanut Linux

Log in as root leave password blank

7. Mayh Linux

User Myah and password Myah

8. AVLinuxMX

 User is root password is root

9. SimplyMepis

 user demo password demo

10. Samity

user demo password demo

11. In some distributions it is user and no password for live.

User and no password

Here, I have reproduced a read me file of Pearl Linux since I could not find the user name and password.

It is an Ubuntu Derivative which has a macOS appearance and is 1.5 GiB.

At the login screen please type "custom" as the user name hit enter then for password lease that field blank and hit enter.

Found a small issue with the fonts not looking correct and I thought I deleted the .iso but I guess not.
All you have to do if you already downloaded Pearl is go into system settings and change the font from Veranda 9 to Ubuntu 10 and this is important,

 

I think Ubuntu One and few others give concern for good password management.
Naming others would be improper since they are not Open Source based.

What goes behind them and whether they share them with the NSA or a corrupt regimes is open for debate.

I have personnel reason to believe they do and my own experience with institutions specially corrupt or vested interests, is on the affirmative.

They are hell bent to breach any privacy one may have.
The reason being that they do not want to be exposed of their sordid acts.

They are paranoid and it is a disease.

Fact that this blog post exists is due to the interference with my blog post elsewhere and a site that lacked good security protocol.

They were dysfunctional over more than a year and I do not use the site anymore.
My writings were very docile innocent and not politically involved.
They were bit humorous and the basic ingredients were satire.

I must say this was run by British Council Library in Kandy which is now defunct.

Unfortunately for me, out of the top ten, my writings (I was involved in initial setup) filled the top eight and the administrator got paranoid and blocked my name.
 

I still continued to write (very little traffic) in spite of noticing the administrators handiwork, since my idea was not to reach the top ten.
 

They used my birthday as a discriminator.

Who says there is no discrimination in web hosting and social media.
But my writings were there for anybody to read in spite of blocking the rating.
I have collated them and recently deleted 75% of the original writings from that site.
Some of them are now in digital output for posterity, in a book form.
 

This preamble is necessary since when one opens one’s heart and not the mind in the web, one has to be prepared for insults and discrimination.

Sadly now governments and secret agencies are doing things that one would not suspect 30 years ago.
Technocrats and not the real hard working guys who fill these posts and operating from air conditioned cubicles and are scared to be on the beat and foot.
 
Invariably paranoia develops.

So I think it is necessary to have a bit of paranoia when one enters the web with email to begin with.

How does one have a good password?
 
How one can remember a password with 14 to 16 characters (what banks employ now for an account, with the help of computers)?

To begin with one has to train the brain to remember.
 

I have a suggestion elsewhere (under web etiquette) that  I do not want to repeat here.

Beginning,

Step 1
One has to remember in blocks of three or four.
To train your mind try to remember your VISA card number.
Front four are almost specific and easy.
The last four should be your next attempt.
Do this every time when you go to the bank or to the till.
Do not worry if you forget.
When you can remember the first and the last lot of four numbers, try the other two lot not in specific way.
Suddenly part of the brain not utilized before get a rush of blood and new neuron networks.
Person with any age with firm resolve can do that.
This subconscious repetitive acts can be easily extended to one's password.

I DO NOT use a VISA card now.
 

I used to remember all the telephone numbers of my friends by heart in good old days and friends are the ones, one frequently ring and (telephone charges were relatively expensive, then) the brain stores them for good.
 
I stop doing that when cell phones came into existence.
 
One has to have one’s own trick for remembering blocks of three or four.

Try to associate them with pictures, names, pets etc.
 
Your pet fish or dog or cat would have a secret code attached.
Every time you feed them repeat the code (in mind) mentally in no time it get fixed as a long term permanent memory.

Step 2
Come with a phrase to include all the 10 to 16 characters in one’s password.
This is the hard part but it can be done.

Step 3
Use elements that one never forgets (unless one has Dementia).
Birthday is an easy one to remember.
 
Use only two numbers from it, not all.

Step 4
Unfortunately this cannot be used if one is English but I will give some hint for them too.
For Sinhala U Mata Banna, or Muta Mata Gahanna Hithenawa or Even Puke Ariya are good enough relatively used rephrases one can remember in trans-literate content, which the English Search engine might have trouble in figuring out.
From that phrase  one can choose four characters (even more if the phrase is carefully constructed) easily.
For English user, one good example is to go to alchemy and remember few Elements from the Tables.
Elements like Argon, Neon, Nitrogen,Bromine could be used at lib.
Or even one can use pentagon, hexagon, octagon or any other scientific or mathematical elements.
 
Again one only remembers four characters.

Step 5
If one has ever used a password before which one has remembered with repeated usage, use the same in the middle or rearrange it and put it in the middle.
 
Which will easily give you at least six characters.

You already got 12 characters now.
 
Step 5
Use two capital letters easy to access from the keyboard as the leader or the end of the password or leader and end, depending one is right or left handed.

Step 6
If the web site requires you to use an alphanumeric pick an alpha numeral to satisfy them.
You got 16 in all and 14 probably is adequate.

Step 7
Do not tell your method to anybody.
Do not share your password even with your spouse.
One day you me be divorced!
That is real and if you have time read my book on “Myths, Miracles and Marriage”.
Usually perfectly normal people become paranoid after getting married.
That is my medical experience.
It is often the people who are near and dear (sometimes, so called friends) who steal your password, not a rouge who breaks in for quick takeaway and getaway.

Keep the record of the method in a secret hiding place that you only have access.
In case one day you forget.

The best place to HIDE  is your brain.

 
Not even a brain surgeon would not have any access.
 

Resetting the password
When you change the password, drop two and take two from your birthday.
Pick four alternative block of four from your catch phrase.
Jumble your original password or add a new one.
Follow the rest as required and one may be able to go on till eighty to ninety since you practiced your own method and is almost specific to YOUR BRAIN which a hacker may not be able to penetrate or crack.

Unless you are one of twins there are no two people alike.
Even in them their are subtle differences not due to genetics but the brain behaves differently, even in twins.

Foot Note
But beware your doctor with a short memory or who is cash strapped who might steal your birth day or the catch phrase that you utter to him every time you visit.
Remember doctors forget their passwords more often than their patients.
They will never tell you.
That is why they record every word you utter and then get the vital diagnosis
wrong.
In this computer age doctors have become robots (unlike good old days) and not real humans.
If they ask you do you forget your passwords
Straight away say NO.
The stupid guy will ask you to state the password and put it in his computer memory which is not protected from hackers.

Even the nurse can steal it, if she/he is inclined.

I trust my doctor does not apply to passwords when you do visit him/her, next time, round.
That includes me too.
I might do that, catch your password, certainly not to steal but because my brain is getting absent minded, I might put that in my computer, easily accessed even by a little kid.

 
Do not worry, I do not practice now by choice not by design anyway.
You are safe with me, my dear.

SevenOS-06

SevenOs-06 

Seven OS-07 not 06 was one of the i386 distributions, I tried in the past its was the forerunner for Netrunner which I currently use. 

SAMity - PCLinux SAM

This is my real beginning of Linux, I really like the Mouse Logo. I have listed few of the Distributions I can remember below

Web site: samity.org
Origin: Germany
Category: Desktop
Desktop environment: Xfce
Architecture: x86
Based on: PCLinuxOS
Wikipedia:
Media: Live CD
The last version | Released: 2010 | October 30, 2010

SAMity (previously: SAM Linux Desktop) – an easy-to-use a live and installation CD based on Unity Linux with Xfce desktop, designed for home users.

SAMity utilizes a nice looking and free software desktop environment Xfce. By including a number of various plug-ins it provides the full functionality of the optimal desktop environment for any SAMity user. It is based on the GTK+2 toolkit, as used in GNOME, and it is entirely mouse-driven.

The latest version of SAMity Linux 2010 is based on Unity Linux which is based on Mandriva Linux.
Older version of SAM Linux is based on PCLinuxOS.

It uses the RPM package manager and it’s designed for home users.

The live system’s user name and password is: guest.

1. Lindows

2. MeeGo

3. Mobilin

4. Musix

5. Myah

6. Wolfer

7. Linux MultiBoot USB

8. Damnsmall

9. Host of Puppy Linux

10. NibleX

11. Linpus

12. Pinguy

13. PC/OS

14. Linux DaVinci

15. Sabayon

16. SAMity

17. SOT Linux

18. Tiny Me

19. Watt Os

20. Xandros

21. Yoper

22. Yellow Dog

23. Seven OS

24.Steam OS

25. Vyatta

 

Manjaro

Manjaro

Manjaro is a user friendly Arch based Linux distribution that offers a simplified installation process, rolling release model and access to the Arch User Repository (AUR). I do not like its dependency checking when a new applications are installed. It takes lot of Internet time installing applications and with a slow Internet speed, it just hangs up. It supports multiple desktop environments, including Xfce, KDE, and Gnome. There are lot of Arch based Linux distributions with missing components that include a functional desktop environment when booted first time round and on this regard Manjaro is the one                    I recommend in spite of internal disputes that delays its release cycle.

It’s image size is 3.5GB.

Manjaro comes with both a CLI and a graphical installer. The rolling release model means that users do not need to upgrade/reinstall the whole system to keep it all up to date inline with the latest release. Package management is handled by Pacman via both the terminal command line and via front end GUI package manager tools like the pre-installed Pamac. It can be configured as either a stable default system or bleeding edge rolling installation, in line with Arch.

Xmond Tiling Manager

 Xmond Tiling Manager

There are tons of Window Managers and very few are actively developed. They are mostly about how to manipulate and navigate windows and only a part of the whole system.

The total system has 3 components.

1. Kernel which deals with the O.E.M stuff and that is where Linux Torvalds makes decision which hardware to  include and which not to.

2. Second part is the graphical output called Window Managers big and small.

3. Third is the browser to survey the web.

Good example is Google and Google operates with these items.

Apple Mac is similar but more of Unix base.

They are only two corporations and to that one can add Redhat and Suse.

Whereas, Linux community is huge and number of Linux distributions stand up to 1000 but only a few are actively developed.

As to the Coding from tiny Editors to Vi to Emac to huge Gambas (visual basic like) are basically for dumb terminals with only  keyboard input support and minimal video outputs.

They were not all free but with Linux entry they were released under G.P.L license over time from 1980s.

Richard Stallman stand tall to open up the flood gate but he did not have system to port and Linus Torvald did the honours. 

Two together are colossal figures in Free Software Foundation.

Xmonad is not a Window Manager as stated in the WiKipedia. 

It is probably a Terminal Emulator for guys and girls working on a blind terminals and not on a Laptops.

It is minimal and it has many restrictions including not being able to configure even the mouse.

I do not use key board shortcut except Ctrl + Alt and backspace + F1 or F2

Any Linux Operating System that cannot make full use of the keyboard and Function Keys is not worth trying.

By the way, I hate Windows Key now named Super Key and I even hate its Logo.

If you a Laptop guy please use i3 Window Manager, it even integrates with my Variety desktop effects. 

Variety is dangerous if you allow it to be connected to the Free Internet and it brought in a virus attached to one of its images. 

There is i3 based distribution called Pueu at FOSS.

Luckily Google informed me (Thank YOU Google).

Working on a blind terminal leads one to become stressed and depressed like Winter blues, I am telling You as fully retired medical man now medically defunct.

Take a little break and go to the gymnasium. 

I do not watch Olympics but cheer only Australians and what the point of sports when Russia is discriminated.

Sportsmen and women should learn to respect other cultures and languages without that attitude Olympics is a Dead Sport. 

I hope I can live up to next Olympics to be held in Australia and by then, I will be working hard to get Russians in the Olympics.

Biden and Democrats will be gone by then and Donald Trump should start with sporting diplomacy and then he would be remembered for a long time (that feature and effort).

War will end with Russia demolishing Zelensky, if not Ukraine. 

Sorry for being bit political for the sake of Sports.

 

Little Neapolitan is a nutty guy and he does not know how to hoist even the Olympic Flag!

Xmond Tiling Manager

Xmonad is a dynamic window manager (tiling) for the X Window System, noted for being written in the functional programming language Haskell.

Window Tiling manager

Begun in March 2007, version 0.1 was announced in April 2007 as 500 lines of Haskell (which have since grown to 2000 lines). 

xmonad is not a tiling window manager—akin to dwm, larswm,and StumpWM.

It arranges windows in a non-overlapping pattern,and enables managing windows without using the mouse.

xmonad is packaged and distributed on a wide range of Unix like operating systems, such as a large number of Linux distributions and Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)systems.

While originally a clone of dwm (derivative in areas such as default keybindings), xmonad now supports features not available to dwm users such as per-workspace layout, tiling reflection, state preservation, layout mirroring,

GNOME support and per-screen status bars; it can be customised by modifying an external configuration file and 'reloaded' while running. 

Xmonad features have begun to influence other tiling window managers: dwm has borrowed "urgency hooks" from xmonad, has also included Xinerama support (for multihead displays) with release 4.8 and patches exist to reimplement xmonad's Fibonacci layout.

Haskell Project

By utilising the expressivity of a modern functional language with a rich static type system, xmonad provides a complete, featureful window manager, with an emphasis on correctness and robustness. 

Internal properties of the window manager are checked using a combination of static guarantees provided by the type system, and type-based automated testing. 

A benefit of this is that the code is simple to understand, and easy to modify.

Since xmonad's inception, when its small code size of 500 lines of code was advertised, it has now grown to 2000 lines in 2023.

Extensions to the core system, including emulation of other window managers and unusual layout algorithms, such as window tiling based on the Fibonacci spiral—have been implemented by the active community and are available as a library.

Along with obviating the need for a mouse, the xmonad developers make heavy use of semi-formal methods and program derivation for improving reliability and enabling a total line of code count less than 1200, as of version 0.7; window manager properties (such as the behavior of window focus) are checked through use of QuickCheck. 

This emphasis makes xmonad unusual in a number of ways; besides being the first window manager written in Haskell, it is also the first to use the zipper data structure for automatically managing focus, and its core has been proven to be safe with respect to pattern matches, contributing further to reliability.

The developers write: 

Xmonad is a tiling window manager for the X Window system, implemented, configured and dynamically extensible in Haskell. This demonstration presents the case that software dominated by side effects can be developed with the precision and efficiency we expect from Haskell by utilising purely functional data structures, an expressive type system, extended static checking and property based testing. In addition, we describe the use of Haskell as an application configuration and extension language.

The code is separated into side effect free code, and a thin wrapper for the side-effects. 

According to Alejandro Serrano Mena, there are two ways of implementing domain-specific languages for actions in Haskell applications and libraries: "developing a combinator library" or "rolling your own monad", with xmonad being a successful example of the latter. xmonad was regarded as one of the most well known Haskell projects in a 2013 functional programming book.

Reception

Linux Magazine included xmonad in a list of "My Top Resources of 2009". In 2012, How-To Geek described xmonad as having good, but complex, ability to be configured and it was included in a 2013 list of eight desktop environments for Linux. Lifehacker wrote that the basic operations of xmonad's user interface can be taught using a small set of instructions. A high level of customisation and speed were noted by Network World and in MakeUseOf xmonad was reviewed positively compared to Openbox.

In 2016 Ars Technica said xmonad and Awesome had more advanced tiling ability than Cinnamon. In 2017 it was described as powerful, with application as a windows manager for big data, while in an article on opensource.com on the other hand, dwm was chosen over xmonad. A TechRadar review of the "Best Linux desktop of 2018" said "If there's one desktop environment that stands out from all the others we have here, it's this one."

Due to the small number of lines of code of the Xmonad application, the use of the purely functional programming language Haskell, and recorded use of a rigorous testing procedure it is sometimes used as a baseline application in other research projects. This has included re-implementation of xmonad using the Coq proof assistant a determination xmonad is an imperative program and studies of package management relating to the NixOS linux distribution.

DEKUVE Linux

 DEKUVE is a Linux distribution based on Debian. 

The free and secure operating system will appeal to even the most demanding user. 

DEKUVE Colors combines a brand new and elegant design with beloved layout, stability and many useful apps and features.

This not true no application at all on first boot.

I think it not a  free operating system but developed in Ukraine probably helped by America to undermine Russia and it is NOT designed for everyone. 

It could be a derivative of LPS.

These are my gut felling and I will never use it a daily driver.

Why there is belena-etcher in this distribution?

1. Name itself is like spy code.

2. Its is a mobile distribution and only has WiFi utility.

Why?

3. This is what the guys behind the battle line could communicate with its company and the master in America.

4. America does not want boots on the ground but they want spyware to mange the UN troops.  

5. Yes it not a community based distribution but company in battle can use.

6. It is by the way, available in FOSS.

7. Beware, good things can be used for bad things. It has happened in the past.

Actually I want ot spend some time on XMonda tiling window manger for my book.

8. DEKUVE won't be included in my book and I am against any war on this planet..

Vanilla OS

Vanilla OS stable, named Orchid is not live and only for istall. I had a very poor opinion when I tested it last. Lack of live session take the fun out of any Linux user, new or old. I would stick to my earlier remarks and I do not recommend immutable Linux distributions at all.

One is at his or her own risk, if installation action is pursued. 

I leave it at that.

GeeBox-2019

 GeeBox-2019

I was looking for a way to boot KODI on a Live USB and found a way.

GeeBox actually mount KODI.

Just download GeeBox iso and write it on a USB.

Unlike Volumio which is a commercial entity, GeeBox is free and Open Source.

I hope developers should do some updating of GeeBox with the new Debian kernel.

I could not boot it having written it to a USB. That means it is for old computers.

In 2019 it was Debian 10.

While I was searching for GeeBox I downloaded Gnome of the past  from Debian 9, 10 and 11.

My best Gnome is Debian 11 Gnome.

By the way, I downloaded old copy of Windows 7 and wrote it on a USB but did not boot. On Box Utiltiy WIN 7 goes into Freeze Mode.

 

Variety Utility of Gnome

 Variety Utility of Gnome is infected with a Virus that comes with its clock utility.

Google informed me and I am removing all instances of Variety.

My impact on L.P.S- Light Weight Portable Security

My impact on L.P.S- Light Weight Portable Security
 

My impact on L.P.S- Light Weight Portable Security was devastating and it has never recovered and gone dormant.

LPS-Public has been downloaded 17,467 times so far!
 

LPS (Lightweight Portable Security) is an open source distribution of Linux that provides users with a thin client designed to run directly from a portable device and not to expose your private data and credentials to anyone.
It has been created by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, as part of their Software Protection Initiative project, and can be used for PIV (Personal Identity Verification) or CAC (Common Access Card) restricted government websites.
 

Distributed as Live CDs in multiple editions
The operating system is distributed as three Live CDs, LPS Public, LPS Public Deluxe, and LPS Remote Access. 

They can be easily deployed to USB flash drives using the UNetbootin application, or written to blank CDs using any CD/DVD burning software.
The first two are available to the general public, but the third one has been specifically designed to be used by the United States Department of Defense (DoD), as well as various other US federal government agencies.
While LPS Public is the smaller one and includes a minimal set of packages, LPS Public Deluxe comes with a bigger collection of applications and utilities. 

They are both engineered to allow productive use of the Internet.
 

Trusted End Node Security (TENS), previously called Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), is a Linux-based live CD with a goal of allowing users to work on a computer without the risk of exposing their credentials and private data to malware, key loggers and other Internet-era ills. It includes a minimal set of applications and utilities, such as the Firefox web browser or an encryption wizard for encrypting and decrypting personal files. The live CD is a product produced by the United States of America's Department of Defense and is part of that organization's Software Protection Initiative.

Update
I have now tested L.P.S and it is below par in every respect except the size which is small enough to fit into a Mini CD.
Having said that it detected all my hardware and it looks like it has taken Redhat (at least the GTK and the toolkit) toolkit as the base by looking at its squarish graphic outputs.
I am not going to detail all the pitfalls but warn newbies not to use it and go for Peppermint which is good for you guys and girls.
Even Peppermint gets 750 out of my 1000 points which is being revised by me recently.
I am not going to state how much it gets from my scale of points, fearing, few of the developers might get heart attacks.
Any distribution without Muliti-Language capability gets minus 250 and only Debian and Fedora gets about 200 points, for that feature.
 

LPS is only in English and No Sinhala means, it as discriminating small guys in smaller countries which is against UNO charter.
 

Only Debian supports Sinhala as a living language and Fedora also does a reasonable job in that respect but because of its rapid change (including partition type) I cannot recommend Fedora, too.
 

As for my final comment for LPS anybody including a newbie who uses root permission at lib is naked enough to be insane in a Linux community.
 

And rooting naked is not in anyway a gamesmanship.
 

So if you want to be naked or insane use LPS at lib.

Otherwise I have listed SliTaz which is 34 MB and 4MLinux which is 50MB (4Ms stands for Mini Server, Multimedia, Maintenance (security), Miracle-games) in this blog site recently, would fit in your Mini CD.
LPS cannot match these two and has a big security hole to plug.
If you are like me download and use it for irrational fun.
 

Happy Independence day to all Americans and would be (aspiring) Americans!

Light Weight Portable, (Private) and Secure or is it?

It looks like American Defense Industry is doing catching up service (activity).

It is 20 years too late of course with Linux.
 

Sometime Americans let me laugh at myself.
I am not anti-american (there is no word called antiamerican in the American Dictionary, unfortunately) in philosophy but in ideology.

My theme is small is beautiful.
 

The American ideology is bigger the best.

The Thinking Big is IBM philosophy.
 

In other words, the richer an American becomes better is for the world.
The American dream is to become rich from cradle to the grave, even if you are not a politician.
Our dream is to let only politicians become rich by default especially if they administer cricket.
My theme is "become rich just enough to become small in thinking of becoming big but big in thinking to be sustainable and not become a big White (Black or Yellow or Brown) Pest in this world which cannot afford to sustain anymore of them with scarce resources.
I like one American Philosophy and that is to be liberal in thinking not aristocratic or regimented like in a orthodox religion.

Become a free thinker and an open inquirer in other words "Kalam Sutta of Buddha".

The WiKiLeakes has done enough damage to American esteem and reputation and they are adopting some of my Linux strategy in practice.
 

United States of America's Department of Defense has produced a Linux Live CD for public use probably for Americans abroad and would be non-american spies in the Middle East (Not necessary in Ceylon, we do not have secrets that Americans do not know except the last two days of our departure or radio silence when most essential silence was maintained by the defense establishment which American have to come here and learn from our Big Ball Boys of Cricket-how to land a carom ball or a googly at will- we never tell English boys how much Mahela is going to score in the next match or the World Cup final).

Ceylon is the only country in this world where Americans do not need to have any secret spies and our defense secretary is American by registration and does not trust Americans a wee bit but our mothers would be when pregnant, do not say Baby going to London town but My Baby is going to New York or Washington or Chicago is the current theme and from mothers to fathers to babies will give American embassy their money to spy on our mother Lanka.
It is amazing to see they are stealing my original Ceylonese ideas and I feel bit flushed and bit redundant in thinking now.

1. Number one is I promote Light Weight (Bonobo type of Linux distributions-Slit is only 30 MiB) distributions in Linux, including Puppy is my favorite.
 

2. Number two of my dream ideas is to make all distribution Public including Microsoft and Apple which are all American Creations with serious bugs when WiKILeaks used them to exposed American wits.
In other words American inventions are the most reliable security lapses that we can exploit to get American secrets.

3. For security I say go for Linux and the Americans have turned to Linux for safety and security but leaving daring loop holes in executing them.
Having said that they are new to Linux and one never uses root permission (only when one roots on top of a problem or underdog) to boot but their Live CD is already booted and rooted all the time like American based French IMF guys.
Another alarming feature is hashed passwords are stored in the would be-readable /etc/passwd file, that can be cracked.
The funniest part and which I laugh at length is they are promoting my Anti-Microsft stance from the DoD (Department of Defense) which accepts Microsoft as the Biggest American Love and Liability.
Another great idea is to use Flash which recently had breached security through Firefox browser.
These Americans in the Defense Department got them all wrong and Linus Torvalds must be laughing nonstop like over nonstop singers and dancers.
American please use this distribution at your own liberty and risk but non-americans beware that this must be another ploy to make some unrest in the Middle East which they are fast losing ground.
I am downloading it and it will be very elaborate when I give my next comment.
If you need more details please visit www.distrowatch.com weekly review but their description lacks funny tone coming from America.
American do not know how to laugh at themselves and DoD has given them a big opportunity.
Use that opportunity to laugh and there is freedom at your disposal to laugh at self, Linux-wise, which is a healthy habit.
I do not know what their future plans are but project without a vision or fun won't last long.
But I will be very nosy in any case when an update comes with bug fixes.

Steam OS

 I found a copy of the Steam Iso and want to see it boots. It has to be Installed and takes over the disk just like Endless OS. I would try it on Box Utility.

SteamOS

The last version | Released: 2.195 | July 17, 2019

SteamOS – a Linux distribution developed by the Valve Corporation, an American company, specializing in creating computer games.

The system is based on the Debian stable branch and provides two default profiles:
– GNOME desktop containing basic programs from this environment
– Big Picture – full screen mode

SteamOS additionally includes proprietary drivers and a newer LTS Extended Support Kernel.
The system is mainly designed to work with the Steam platform and run games available on Steam.
A desktop profile based on the GNOME desktop and Debian repositories allow the installation of additional programs and their operation on the system.

The underlying system is open source, but the Steam client is closed (proprietary) software.
SteamOS is available for 64-bit machines equipped with a motherboard with UEFI.

From January 21, 2014 the SteamOS has been released for older 64-bit machines running with BIOS. 

Big Linux

 I am interested in distributions using Light Weight Window mangers like, Enlightenment, Window Manager, Wm3 an i3 etc;

Big Linux – a Brazilian Linux live CD with support for hard disk install and localized into Brazilian Portuguese. Big Linux was based on Kurumin, Knoppix, Kanotix, and the latest version on Kubuntu.

The project started in 2001 by Bruno Gonçalves.
In 2004 the creator and maintainer of BigLinux used Kurumin distribution as a base to the Big Linux.

Big Linux 2.x series offered 4 desktops environments: 

Gnome, 

KDE, 

 IceWM and 

Fluxbox, in addition to a large amount of games and programs, but the main highlight was availability of 3D simulation features for KDE and Gnome environments. It was the first distribution which offered 3D effects on a single CD (?).

Big Linux 3 series was more focused on stability and ease of updating; with that released only two desktops were available. It also reduced the number of programs available on CD. The 3 version was using packages from Debian and Ubuntu.

The first stable version of 4.x was released in August 2008.

Starting form version 11.10, the distribution was based on Kubuntu.

The latest version of Big Linux is 12.04; after that, the project changed its name to Kaiana.

As of August 2019, BigLinux 19.04 released with KDE Plasma and LXQt desktop environments as default. 

Volumio-3.703-2024

This is a commercial product like DaVinci Resolve

Please visit its home page.

Volumio-3.703-2024

One good point is, even though it is 4GB image, it uses the rest of  USB stick for data storage.

This is something Linux developer should include by default in Live USB install. Of course, Puppy Linux perfected the ability to populate the entire USB many years ago when the market was empty of storage options, other than USBs

I am referring to SSDs which came to the marker pretty late.

Knoppix Linux now gone defunct had a script to extend (it has its own partition type) the persistent storage ones need and even leaving space for NTFS partition

This is an iso Image of of 4GB of an Audio Output Program.

This is an open source Music Player one can carry in a USB Stick or SD Card on a cellphone.

My NUC has no Audio input and output ports and I have to stick a USB Media Player (I have one) the for input of ear phone jacks, to listen to any Audio. 

I do not like to stick a pair of ear phones except when traveling by air.

So its performance was not tested, but I will certainly carry it in my pocket with  Batocera and Chimera Game USBs.

My challenge for  Linux developers is to make a Similar Utility of Video Player, like KODI (it can be installed on hard disk), OBS Studio and more importantly Kdenlive to be carried in a USB stick and play it on the go.

USB sticks are ubiquitous now on this planet.

One has to write a small script like Linux MultiSystem USB.

That is all but it has to be an iso Image.

Gentoo-2024-07-21

Gentoo-2024-07-21

After a very long lapse Gentoo has released two Iso Images one minimal and one comprehensive for several platforms including amd64.

It ran smoothly on BOX utility and I am going to write it to a USB.

It is KDE Desktop with all included except the application store. I am glad they have chosen KDE and not Gnome since there would be certain compatibility issues with Gnome to begin with.

One should use the comprehensive image for the sake of out of the box experience.

If one wants to learn Arch protocols then try to Install it from smaller image.

Torrent file has no seeders and I got the image by direct download and it is 3.6GB in size.

Yes, this KDE desktop is pretty good and I cannot find anything wrong with this distributions.

The reason being, the developer community did not go or bound by a time frame to deliver it.

They delivered it when it was really ready. 

There may be a few bugs here and there but that is not something one has to worry about.

I think Gentoo Community probably applied Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in it.

What is really good about Gentoo, is first thing they promote is not the distributions but the handbook they have published.

Good on them.

I always find some faults on any distribution hurriedly delivered.

That is why this blog site exits.

Constructive criticism not anything else.

I want Linux to succeed and and take a 10% market share. 

I think Gentoo is delivering the gods and one who uses would not go for another distribution.

I am predicting that Gentoo will automatically take the place of Manjaro where there is infighting of developers.

By the way, even though, I uninstalled Budgie Desktop it has left some soothing wallpapers for me to enjoy.

Thank you Budgie Guys and Girls.

Thank you Gentoo Guys and Girls.

I am hooked to Netrunner Linux due to its cool effects on the desktop. Had Gentoo came earlier than Netrunner I would have embraced it. 

I think Gentoo has thought about the Laptop users.